


Push Away What We Can Never Understand

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Series: Learn to Live with the Unimaginable [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Established Relationship, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, POV Multiple, Team as Family, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-06 00:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: Steve stared up at the ceiling. "I think this might be the most terrifying thing we've ever done.""It has the highest stakes," Sharon said. After a moment of silence, she added, softly. "We don't have to do it."He looked over at her. "Yeah, we do."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We weren't going to do Endgame in this universe. . . and then we did. This whips through a rotation of 8 POVs, so they're labeled. This picks up immediately at the end of _They Are Standing In the Garden_
> 
> Note: Though it may look like otherwise at certain points, everybody lives. Except Thanos.

_Clint_

FRIDAY announced the jet was inbound, and Clint went and retrieved his daughter from the playground. He joined Sharon on the spot on the lawn where they usually waited with their kids. Jamie Rogers waited patiently, holding his mother's hand. Harry, who was that age where they were mobile but had no sense of self preservation, was zigzagging around on one of those backpack harness things.

"There are jet engines," was all Sharon said in explanation.

"Nate was like that at that age," Clint said. He was proud he could talk about his children now without his voice shaking. Stories and his memories were all he had left. If he couldn't talk about them, they wouldn't exist anymore. "We had one of those things."

The jet set down on the landing pad, and the back gate dropped. Tatiana began wiggling and flailing the moment she saw Natasha at the top of the ramp. He waited for the engine to go off before putting her down. "Mommy! Mommy!"

Sharon released Harry and Jamie and the three of them went running/toddling across the grass. There was something so settling about seeing that. Life moving on. 

Nat crouched and caught her, scooping her up without breaking stride. "There's my little dumpling. How are you? Were you good for Papa?"

"I missed you. I had cookies."

"Cookies are the best." She kissed her cheek, heading over to Clint. "I missed you too. Both of you."

He reached out an arm for to pull them close. Behind her he could see Steve had let his boys tackle him and knock him over. "How was the op?"

"Bloody. Grimy." She leaned against him. "Over."

Clint kissed her temple. "We're very glad you're home."

"Me too." She hefted Tati higher on her hip. "What's for dinner?"

"Uh." He paused. "Space meat."

She paused and looked at him. "Excuse me?"

"Rocket and Nebula brought some kind of vaguely bovine carcass back from somewhere. The Asgardians were excited and took most of it, but Thor insisted we'd like it."

"I reserve the right to order pizza if it's disgusting."

"I find that fair."

She carried Tati to the house and let her down to run to the play room. Then she turned to wind her arms around his neck. "I missed you."

"Mmm. I missed you, too." He leaned down to kiss her.

"Hey guys," Rhodey said, coming into the living room doorway. "You remember Scott Lang--he died in the snap, didn't he?"

Nat sighed a little, tipping her head back to look at him. "Yeah, he was nowhere to be found. I remember him being on the list of the disappeared."

He hooked his thumb over his shoulder. "Because he, um, seems to be at the front gate."

The two of them froze, staring at him a moment. Then Nat sighed a little stepping away from him. "I really wanted to shower, too."

Scott Lang was so stressed and agitated, they collectively decided he needed some food in him and a shower himself before the tried to explain what had happened. Which meant Nat got to go have hers. Someone made him a sandwich—they decided to table the space meat for the moment—and a bunch of them stood around watching him devour it like he was starving. Eventually, he looked up and said, "Have any of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"

After a beat, Steve said, "Hey, FRIDAY, get Tony out here."

"He's finishing bedtime," she replied. "Be out in a moment."

They stood awkwardly a moment, until Tony appeared, then Steve gestured to Scott. "Continue."

Scott rambled on about the quantum realm and getting stuck in it and time passing differently and going into the past. It sounded like nonsense to Clint's ears, but Tony sat down across from him and was throwing out science words in a way that sounded like he took it seriously. He sent for Bruce, who didn't live in the main house, and then asked Valkyrie to come over because she'd once lived on a planet in a wormhole. 

Clint put Tati to bed himself because Nat could at least follow the conversation. When he returned, Nat told him they'd woken up Nebula and Rocket and sent a message out into space to try and get ahold of Carol.

It was an all-hands-on-deck meeting. Because team science was talking about building a time machine.

Nat came to bed late, yawning and barely taking the time to strip before climbing in next to him. "Tony's on his twelfth simulation. My eyes were starting to cross so I gave up."

Clint had gone to bed hours ago, but he sure as hell wasn't sleeping. "They seem pretty serious."

"They are." She curled up, resting her head on his shoulder. "Tony thinks he's getting close."

He stared at the ceiling a moment, then sat up, dislodging her. "I'm gonna go for a run."

She propped herself up on an elbow, watching him. "Clint?"

He stood up. "Are we going to talk about what this _means_? Or just--hey, here's a time machine, lets go bumble around the past?"

"I think they're waiting to have that conversation after they figure it out. No sense in ripping open wounds if it turns out to be impossible." She sat up, drawing her legs to her chest. "Are you saying you don't want to?"

"I can't answer that!" He turned. "You know what that question is for me, Nat? Choose between your children."

"Hey," she said softly. "No one here is going to do this if it means erasing the kids. You think Steve and Sharon are going to sacrifice the boys? Or Tony Morgan?"

He blew out a breath. "None of the rest of them have kids in the past. They figure out how and decide not to, because of exactly that. How do I live the rest of my life knowing that it's _possible_."

She was quiet a moment. "Maybe it doesn't have to be one or the other."

"I don't know anything about time travel. I just wish we could discuss the bomb before we build it."

"The last I heard, the plan was to go get stones from various times and build a new gauntlet. To undo what Thanos did. But that doesn't mean we have to wind back the last five years. We can just. . . bring them back. Here and now."

"How is that possible?"

She spread her hands. "I don't know. Gauntlets of infinite power is out of my pay grade. But the others seemed to think it is." She took a breath. "But you're right, we all need to talk about this before we take it too far. I don't think we'll get anywhere if we try to get them to focus now. But I'll make everyone sit down tomorrow and really think about logistics."

He rubbed his eyes. "Okay."

"If you still want to go for a run, I don't mind."

"I won't sleep. Might as well not keep you up."

She nodded. "I'd offer to keep you occupied another way, but given the topic it seems uncouth."

He inclined his head. "I'll be back in a bit."

"Be safe," she told him, giving him a little wave.

If he ran hard enough, he wouldn't have to think.

*

_Tony_

Everyone had finally gone to bed just before dawn. Tony headed to bed himself, and then thought of something just as he reached the bedroom door. For a moment he stood in the hallway, trying to will himself to go in and go to sleep.

It was one more model. What would it hurt to go take a few minutes to run it?

He turned on a heel, going back to the lab. "Hey, FRIDAY. One more sim before I call it. Can you show me a mobius strip inverted, please?"

She did so, and he reached out to turn it a few ways, giving her more variables to take into account.

"Don't worry if it doesn't pan out I'm just-"

"Model rendered."

He looked up to see the words "Model Successful" hovering next to the diagram.

"Holy shit." Tony turned, startled, at the voice behind him. Pepper was leaning against the doorframe in her PJs. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Means your husband invented time travel," he told her.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "That is amazing, terrifying. . . and if I'm honest a little hot."

He grinned and tilted her head at her. "Really, let's pursue that last one."

Pepper blew out a breath, and came further into the room. Standing next to him, she reached absently to rub the back of his neck. "I think terrifying is winning."

"I know." He tucked an arm around her. "What do you think we should do?"

"You and I got extraordinarily lucky," she said. "Most people didn't. Some got extraordinarily unlucky. If we don't at least try. . . Would you ever be able to look Clint in the eye again?"

He sighed, because she was right. Still. . . "He has Tati and Nat now. He's got as much to lose as gain."

"Do you remember telling me all those years ago how you shouldn't have survived Afghanistan unless it was for a reason?"

"I have a vague memory of being that level of maudlin for a brief time."

"How much air did you have left when Valkyrie found you?"

He made a face. "Six hours."

"Fate's given you a lot of second chances."

"You think this is my chance to return the favor?"

"To save 3 billion lives? Yeah, yeah I do." She reached down to cup his cheek to turn his face up to look at her. "But I can't say how much I love you for asking about it."

He smiled and kissed her palm. "Come on. Let's get a couple hours sleep. I can show the rest of them in the morning."

*

_Sharon_

"Is this really feasible? Or are we just talking about theory?"

The large family meeting was underway. They'd waited for everyone to be up, and for Carol to patch in on the holo line. The kids were all eating pancakes and Sharon was standing in the doorway so she could keep an eye on both.

"How often am I wrong?" Tony asked. There were a couple of snorts, and then he sighed and added, "About science."

That was met with grumbled agreement. "So it's possible," Nat said. "What do we do, then? Go strangle baby Thanos? Get all the stones before he can?"

"Time travel doesn't work that way," Bruce said. "We can't change the past. Not in a way that will change the present."

"So what are we talking about?"

"Building our own glove," Tony said. "Pluck stones from various points in the past we can find them, make our own gauntlet and undo what he did. Without changing what has happened. Bring everyone back to now, this present."

"Won't people fall out of the sky?" Steve asked. He held up a hand. "Not disagreeing conceptually. But there are logistical issues."

"I would hope they'd just appear where they disappeared from. The stones seem to understand intent."

"No, I get that. Some of them disappeared from airplanes."

"Our people were on lifeboats in space," Valkyrie said.

"I'm not saying it's a perfect plan, just the beginnings of one."

"I believe we would be able to ask the stones a very specific request," Nebula said. "It could be fine tuned so that no one materializes anywhere dangerous."

"And the world able to support them," Sharon added. "That would need to be on the list."

"Can we reverse climate change, too?" Nat asked. "Since we're tinkering."

"I don't imagine cleaning your atmosphere would be a problem," Thor said. "They have Infinite power. We could probably save Asgard."

"I think Ragnarok was inevitable," Valkyrie said. "It would just happen again later."

"Okay, but at least—"

"No, she's right," Tony said. "The more you mess with time, the more it messes back. Everything we change has unpredictable consequences. We can't have a grocery list."

"Which means we focus on the priorities," Sharon said. "Everyone back safe and enough resources to care for them."

Pepper held up a hand, and asked, "Can we just pause for a second and contemplate how truly awful Thanos was? You have infinite power, and your solution to not having enough resources for the population is to kill half the people, instead of doubling the resources."

"A guy takes one econ class and thinks he can save the world," Nat said.

"Clint," Steve said quietly. "You've been quiet."

Clint looked at him. "Only way to save Jamie from certain death is to play Russian Roulette with Harry. What do you do?"

Steve nodded, like he'd expected something like that. "I don't know," he admitted.

"Yeah," Clint said. "So I'm quiet."

"We can drop this conversation right now," Steve told him. "No one would judge you."

He exhaled heavily. "Okay. You're missing the point." He stood up. Nat tried to touch him and he shook her hand off. "I'm going to go be quiet someplace else. Let me know when you all figure it out."

Sharon stepped out our the way so he could stride past her, then stepped back into the doorway to find everyone looking at Nat. She spread her hands. "Whatever happens, he risks losing something. You're giving him hope when he's finally moved on. That's not easy."

"It's not Russian Roulette," Tony said. Sharon could see him make eye contact with Pepper. "If I thought there was serious risk to Morgan I'd have put it in a lockbox and tossed it onto the bottom of the lake."

"I know," she said quietly. "But he had kids on both ends of this. And that's different math."

"No, I get that. I'm saying that if I didn't believe the present would remain unharmed by this time heist thing, he'd have never known it was even an option."

"I'll talk to him." Nat sounded tired and Sharon wondered if she'd slept last night. "He needs to process."

"If he wants to recuse himself from the decision about this," Carol said, "I think you should let him."

There was a silence while they all mulled on that. "I think it feels wrong to make the decision without him," Sharon admitted. "He lost the most of any of us."

"I will talk to him," Nat said more firmly.

That night, after they got the boys in bed, Steve and Sharon were awake in the dark. "I've been thinking about it all day," he said. "What would I do?"

She sighed softly, taking his hand under the blankets. "I don't think Clint's comparison with Russian Roulette is fair. But I can see how it's scary. And. . . maybe it feels a bit like his healing is being ripped away. Obviously he still loves and misses Laura and the kids. But he's moved on. He has Nat and Tati. And now we're giving him this. . . hope again, long after he stopped thinking it could happen."

"None of our losses, no matter how painful, have been anything like his. I think I had to be a father to understand that."

Sharon hadn't really wrapped her head around it either. The idea of the boys just being gone was horrific. "Do you think he just wants us to make the decision for him? Take it out of his hands?"

"That is probably the least guilt inducing way."

"He's going to be able to blame us, too. If it goes wrong." Though depending on which way it went wrong, they'd all be punishing themselves.

"I think this might be the most terrifying thing we've ever done."

"It has the highest stakes," she said. After a moment of silence, she added, softly. "We don't have to do it."

He looked over at her. "Yeah, we do."

She smiled, and kissed his cheek. There was the old Steve. Standing in everyone's way and telling them to move.


	2. Chapter 2

_Valkyrie_

"You don't remember those legends at all?"

Thor reached over the arm of the couch to steal a handful of her popcorn. "Before my time."

Valkyrie held the bowl out of his reach. "I don't like being reminded I'm older than you."

"I think you might be older than my mother, technically."

"You're sleeping on the couch."

They had been in the living room for two days, accumulating a mess of takeout boxes while a rotating shift of Asgardian women she'd roped in were keeping all the children out of their hair. They had six infinity stones to find, somewhere in the past. As soon as they figured out when or where.

"I'm sleeping on the couch whether you're mad at me or not," he replied, stretching for the bowl. "What legends?"

She tipped her head back, letting him have some popcorn. "The soul stone isn't just sitting there. There's someone there who keeps it—an eternally dammed soul. The Asgardian variant was that it is a very successful warrior who was so evil he was thrown out of Valhalla."

"There must be a way to get it from him," he said, shoving a handful in his mouth. "Thanos did."

"You can," she said. "Supposedly. But you can't kill him. If you do, you get stuck there as the guardian."

From across the room, Tony said, "I think there was an Indiana Jones with that plot."

"I don't know what an Indiana Jones is," she replied. The whole lot of them always expected her to know far, far more about Midgard culture than she did.

"If we save the world, you should watch it," Steve told her. He, apparently, had kept a list to help him catch up with things he'd missed.

"So do you solve a riddle or something?" That was Nat, who was taking notes on all the stone brainstorming.

"Supposedly you have to convince him."

"Our cause is certainly worthy," Steve said.

"But Thanos is not," Nebula said. "And he certainly doesn't have charm. So either the stonekeeper liked his plan—maybe he did—or it was extracted. Thanos is certainly good at torture."

"So we should send people not afraid to get their hands dirty," Sharon said, rocking back in her chair.

"We'll go," Clint said. "Nat and I. She can manipulate things out of anyone. Even gods and monsters."

"I appreciate your confidence in me, honey," Nat teased, making a note.

"Are we all going?" Steve asked. "Or are we keeping the rule that one parent stays behind?"

The Bartons exchanged a look, then Clint said, "What you guys do is up to you. But nobody fights better together than her and I. We're better as a unit than individually or with anyone else."

Nat nodded. "We can leave Tati with whoever is staying behind."

"We're both going," Thor said, then turned to her. "I assume."

Valkyrie sighed dramatically. "Someone has to look after you." Also, they didn't have children and went on missions together all the time.

A glance back at the table indicated that Steve and Sharon had probably not discussed this and probably should.

"Let's figure out how many teams we need," Tony said, clearly sensing the marital strife building. "And then we can worry about who's going where."

*

_Natasha_

Nat had her charts up on the view screen. "Okay. Soul Stone: On Vormir that last couple millennia at least. Power Stone: On Morag until 2014, then bounced around for a few weeks, then on Xandar until Thanos. Reality Stone: Hidden at mystery location, then moving between London and Asgard in 2013, and then moved to Knowhere. Mind Stone: No idea where it was before Loki showed up with it in New York in 2012, then SHIELD had it maybe in the Fridge? Von Stucker had it by 2014, we had it in 2015, Ultron stole it and then it was in Vision's head. Space Stone: Norway from the 1100's to 1943, Germany 1943-45, few years at the bottom of the Atlantic, SHIELD custody from then until. . ." She turned. "Carol? Mid 90's?"

"Ninety-two," Carol replied.

"Right. Then it spent 20 years in a pocket dimension inside Nick Fury's cat."

"I really didn't think we could beat the talking raccoon," Steve said. "But I was so wrong."

Nat ignored that. "Two years underground in New Mexico, then New York in 2012, then Asgard until it blew up." She sighed as the last column came up. "All we have for the Time Stone is 'Strange' with a question mark."

"I remember a Stephen Strange being on Hydra's kill list," Sharon said. "During Project Insight. I think he was in New York."

"He was in 2018," Banner said. "I crashed into the roof of his house."

"Okay," Nat said, and added _New York 2014-2018_ to the list.

"What's the deal with Fury's cat?" Tony asked. "That seems a particularly easy thing to steal. Even though it's apparently mystical."

"It's not actually a cat," Carol said. "It's a flerken."

Nat did not know what a flerken was, but the immediate reaction—to the collective tune of "Oh, fuck, no,"—from Thor, Valkyrie, Rocket and Nebula was so strong she actually turned around to look at them in surprise.

"Flerken are vile creatures," Nebula said. "They breed indiscriminately, eat anything, overrun planets. They have tentacles in their mouths, poison in their claws. Hunting them is a popular sport on many planets."

"I've petted that cat," Clint said mildly.

"Goose is very sweet," Carol said. "But he did cost Fury an eye."

Every head turned, and there was a moment of stunned silence before Steve said, "You're shitting me."

"No. He was holding him, Goose got startled and scratched him."

"Flerken claws have a necrotoxin in them," Rocket added. "Which might be the least dangerous thing about them."

"Okay," Nat said. "No cat. And the Tesseract is the least of our worries, we have the longest track of it. Narrow windows first."

"2015," Bruce said. "Tony and I had the scepter, and Strange was in New York." 

She studied her timelines and nodded slowly. "All right. Who do we want to send?" She put a note on those columns. "Tony, the scepters in the Tower, you'd be the easiest to sneak in."

"Yeah. Though it's flexible. JARVIS will let any of the original team in."

"Asgard in 2013 has Reality and Space," Steve said. "Thor?"

He nodded slowly. "I will need some way to extract the Aether from Jane."

"We can figure that out," Rocket said. "No problem."

"It should be straightforward, then. Get the Aether from her and the tesseract from the vault." He looked over at Valkyrie. "Up for a trip to Asgard?"

"Are we going to be able to steal something from the vault?"

He opened his mouth and closed. "No, actually. if it's the day the Aether is there, the vault will be teeming with guards. Everyone was on high alert because of the Elves."

"We'll come back to the Tesseract in a second," Nat said. "But you two go get the Ether."

"Could do Morag and Vormir in one shot," Rocket said. "We'd need the ship anyway, we don't have an exact date on one or location on the other. Something to camp in would be good."

"Right. So me and Clint for Vormir and who wants to go to Morag? Nebula?"

"Sure," she said. "When Quill shows up, he should lead us right to it. Rocket'll come with me."

"I can come too," Rhodey said. "If you need more firepower."

"And that is always welcome."

"Maybe we don't want to send as many people," Scott said. "We're down to the bottom on Pym particles."

"Let's get some, then," Tony said.

Everyone now turned to look at him. "From where?" Scott asked.

"Pym worked for SHIELD. SHIELD had the Tesseract. I know they've been in the same building."

"Do you know when?" Nat asked, twirling her pen through her fingers.

"I know Dad and Pym were both in that underground bunker in Jersey—the one Zola tried to blow you guys up in—the day I was born. Dad was working on the Tesseract at the time."

On her chart, she wrote May 4th, 1970 and connected it to the space stone. "Who wants to go to Jersey?"

*

_Pepper_

Time travel sounded ominous and scary, at first, but their plan seemed to be coming together in a manner less 'go fight evil in the past' like she'd expected, and more about stealing things from themselves. In the past.

Pepper didn't understand the science, but she trusted Tony. And the rest of them. So she didn't worry too much more than usual. Until the night before their mission, she went looking for him when he didn't come to bed, and found him in his office, recording messages to Morgan. Standing out in the hall, she could hear him wishing her a happy birthday, and she leaned back against the wall. They were messages for Morgan if he didn't come back.

Now she was worried.

She waited for him to finish up, then slipped into the room. He was sitting in his arm chair, staring off into space. When she entered he glanced over and smirked. "Think something threatening her future spouse is too much?"

"Probably," she said quietly. She walked towards him and he held on his arms and she tucked herself into his lap.

"It'll probably be fine," he told her, rubbing her back. "It's just. . . a contingency plan."

"I was going to ask if you're feeling paranoid, or if you're feeling scared?"

"Probably more the first than the second. The math checks out, the science is there. But we're still going into the unknown."

She pressed her face into the crook of his neck. "You wouldn't be you if you had a normal life, but sometimes I wish you did. Be a car mechanic or something."

He chuckled. "I know. Sometimes I think so too." He gave her a little squeeze. "But if I were, I wouldn't be able to fix this."

"I know." She inhaled his scent. "She'll want them. If the worst happens."

"I hope you don't need them. But it felt important to do it."

"Yeah." After a moment she sat up. "Come to bed?"

He looked at the recorder a long moment, then nodded, helping her to her feet. "Yeah. Come on."

"I expected far more argument than that."

"Maybe I just want to spend a little time with you, too," he said, giving her butt a pat as he stood.

She held her hand out to him. "We don't have to sleep."

Grinning, he took her hand and tucked it into his arm. "That's what I hoped you'd say."

In the morning, when they all got prepped to go, Pepper noticed many of them looked tired and wondered if they'd all had the same night. Anxiety and sex and trying to figure out how to prepare their children. She knew there was a worst case scenario, where something went horribly, wrong, and she'd end up a single mother to four children.

They packed up Morgan, Tati, Jamie and Harry for her to take across the the lake to New Asgard. Nobody thought the portal was dangerous to them, but if they came back with the stones, that could be. Better safe than sorry. 

"We'll be fine," Pepper promised them, leaning in the doorway of the van she was driving over there. "Everybody focus on your mission."

The parents said the last of their goodbyes and Nat ran into the house for the stuffed animal Tati had forgotten.

Tony gripped the edge of the door and leaned down to kiss Pepper. "Stay sane."

"Save the world," she replied, then she pulled herself all the way in and let him shut the door. It honestly wouldn't be very long at all for her. "Talk to you in an hour or so."

He tapped the side of the van and stepped away waving to the little faces in the back seat.

*

_Steve_

_New Jersey, 1970_

Scott went and got the Pym particles—he'd know exactly what he was looking for—and Steve got the Tesseract. Those tasks ended up being no big deal. Getting out was more of a problem.

With a new batch of particles, Scott could shrink and go wherever he wanted. Steve, however, ended up trapped in some administrative office hiding from the MPs.

He decided to give it a moment for the searchers to clear the hall, and a photo on the wall caught his eye. It was, he realized with a start, himself and the Howling Commandos during WW2. He remembered that picture, and who took it. He turned and finally looked at the lettering on the door of the office he was in.

_Margaret Carter, Director_

"-don't care what General Howe says, I want that report and I want it without black bars all over it." Her voice came from the front office and he peeked through a window between the offices to see here there, in a smart suit, waving a file at a beleaguered looking private. 

He stared. He couldn't help it. He stood there entirely too long, enough that she looked up at the internal window, and looked right at him. Her eyes widened and she dropped the file she was holding on the desk. "Dismissed," she said to the private and made a shoeing motion with her hand. Steve was already backing up, not sure where to go, when she came through the inner door.

She stared at him a very, very long moment. "Steve?" she finally said softly.

"Uh. Yeah. Hi."

Quietly closing the door behind her, she glanced around the room before focusing back on him. "How?"

He looked at her a long moment, then decided this woman founded SHIELD. She'd see so much weird she'd probably believe him. "I was buried in the ice in the Arctic for 70 years. I'm actually here from the future." He held up his hand to show her the time travel device. "2023. Which is about a decade after I thawed out."

She leaned forward to study the device a moment, then gave a little nod, leaning back. Then her face broke into a radiant smile. "How have you been, darling?"

Steve smiled back, and then he sighed. He could never be anything but honest with her. "Five years ago, for me, the Earth went through something terrible. Worse than World War II. I'm part of a team—not unlike the Howling Commandos—that fights evil. A group of us have gone into the past to get some things we need to reverse the disaster."

"And you needed something here?" He nodded. "Have you found it? Do I need to go be unreasonable Director Carter for you?"

"I found it," he said. "I might need a little help getting out, though." He glanced at his briefcase, and a photo on the desk caught his eye. It was a group photo of family members—he recognized Sharon's Dad. For a moment he wished she'd come along to this time after all. He'd have brought her if he'd known he was going to run into Peggy. She'd have liked to see her.

"That's my daughter's graduation," Peggy said, noticing his gaze.

Steve nodded. "Lilly." He looked up. "I've met them. In the future."

She smiled brightly. "Was she nice to you? She has her mother's temper, I'm afraid."

"Mostly." He chuckled. "Both of mine have my terminal case of stubborn, kids are great payback like that."

She looked utterly delighted. "You have children? I don't suppose you have any pictures?"

Sharon teased him about having physical pictures, but now he was was glad he did. He always kept them in his shirt when he was in the field, and he fished out the one of the boys. "Jamie and Harry," he said, handing it over. "Four and eighteen months."

"Oh my stars, look how _blonde_ they are." She shook her head, studying them a moment, before handing it back. "They're lovely little boys, Steve. I can certainly see you in them."

"Thank you," he said. "I see me in them every damn day."

Peggy studied him a moment, then reached out to touch his arm. "I'm so happy you're all right," she told him.

"I am. So when you see me in 70 years, don't worry so much, okay?"

"I'll try," she promised. "Tell your wife to take good care of you. Or she'll have me to answer to."

He knew it wouldn't change the future he was from, but he was tempted to tell her things. About Hydra, about Zola, about the Winter Soldier. So maybe this reality would be different. But somehow large scale geopolitical tinkering felt like it could be a disastrous idea. But maybe something personal. . . "Hey, Peg? Get your husband to stop smoking. Do it now."

She blinked, clearly not expecting that, then smiled faintly. "I'll talk to him tonight."

He inclined his head. "Walk me out?"

"Of course." She tugged her jacket down and smoothed her skirt before gesturing him towards the door.

*

_Thor_

_Asgard, 2013_

"I think time on Asgard just doesn't. . . align correctly."

"That would have been useful information to have earlier." Valkyrie paced another circle around the small room they'd hidden in, and Thor watched her. They needed to get the Ether out of Jane with a device Rocket had built. The plan was pretty simple, Valkyrie would pose as a healer and pull it out of her while the rest of them were still trying to figure out what it was. Unfortunately, they'd missed the mark.

"In my defense," he tried. "I didn't think of it until right now."

"Okay." She rubbed her eyes. Being on Asgard had also clearly upset her more than he'd expected. This was an all around clusterfuck. "We need a new plan."

"Jane is still here," he said. "We just need to find her."

"And then what, just walk up and stab her in the arm? She won't yell for the guards?"

"We'll hit the buttons and go back home before they come."

"Okay."

The guards were outside the door.

"We need a plan C," she said. They were hiding behind a pair of columns. 

He sighed. "I'll go. They'll let me in." As strange and uncomfortable as it was going to be to pretend he was himself from a decade ago and make small talk with a woman he'd later have a painful breakup with. While his wife hovered in the hallway.

This entire thing had been a terrible idea.

"Do you remember exactly what you looked like during all this?" she asked. "You'll need to match." He had a vague idea. His hair had been longer, he thought. His beard had definitely been much shorter. Now it was long enough to braid, which she'd done that morning like they were going into battle.

"Longer hair, with a braid. And I'll need to find a cloak or something."

She might have said something in reply but he didn't hear it. Because motion out of the corner of his eye had caught his attention, and when he looked he saw his mother walking through the courtyard across from them.

He'd been hit many times, but nothing had every knocked the air out of him like the sight of her again. She was surrounded by ladies in waiting, clearly chatting with them, and was as radiant and animated as he remembered her. She got out of sight and he followed, barely even hearing Valkyrie's alarmed cry.

He kept walking, hoping to get another glimpse. Having somewhat forgotten the layout of these halls, he was genuinely surprised when he came around a corner and nearly crashed into her. She jumped a little and put her hand over her heart. "Thor! What are you. . .?" She trailed off and frowned, peering at him.

"I, uh, was just going. For a walk. To get some air."

She was watching him very intently. Then she reached up to fuss with one of the braids in his beard and asked, "What happened to your eye?"

"Oh, the eye, the eye." He took her hand, rubbing it between his. "You remember the battle at Haruquin when I got hit in the face with a broadsword."

"No," she said, sounding very certain. "You are you but also not. From a different time. The future."

He progressed to actual panic at that moment, having no idea what to say, but not wanting to let her go. "What? I'm not from the future."

She made the face he'd seen a thousands times over the course of his childhood. "I was raised by witches, boy, I see with more than eyes and you know that."

Before he could formulate a response, Valkyrie appeared at his side. "Hi, if she's on to you, I'm not hiding behind the post." She dipped into something curtsey-like he'd never seen her do before. "Your majesty."

Now his mother actually looked surprised. "Brunnhilde?"

She laughed. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in millennia. Wasn't sure your memory was that long."

"The last leader of the Valkyries? Yes, I remember."

"I found her," Thor said. "On a distant planet." He reached over and took her hand. "We're wed."

"You really have been time traveling, haven't you? Oh--" She reached up and wrapped her arms around him, and he was hugging his mother, something he'd never though he'd get to do again. He'd almost forgotten what she smelled like. "That's wonderful."

He wrapped his arms around her, not wanting to ever let her go. "I need your help," he mumbled.

"I'll help. Let's get out of the hallway." She leaned back to look up at him. "And you'll explain."

The fact it was an order and not a question amused him. His mother was exactly as he remembered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace yourselves.

_Clint_

_Vormir, 2014_

The spaceship hurtling through some kind of light tunnel was the coolest thing Clint had ever experienced in his entire life. "Long way from Budapest, isn't it?"

She laughed, watching the light show outside like a little kid on their first carnival ride.

On the other side of the tunnel, the ship slowed enough they were able to unbuckle and gear up a bit as it made its way to their destination. Clint went to check his weapons in the back. He'd brought his bow this time. It seemed. . . fitting. And you never knew when those trick arrows would be handy.

They watched Vormir grow larger through the front window. Nat reached out and gave his hand a squeeze before they resettled in their seats for landing.

The planet was very barren and eerie, the sky a roiling purple. The only feature on the landscape was a looming mountain. With no other options, they hiked toward it.

"I feel like this part, with the mountain climbing, should have been mentioned in the mission brief."

"I bet the raccoon doesn't have to climb a mountain," she said, actually sounding out of breath. "Or Steve. I know Tony doesn't have to climb a mountain, he has a suit and and elevator."

"Yeah, but Steve had to go to both New Jersey and the '70's."

She rolled her head back and forth. "Yeah, okay. I don't envy him."

They hiked in silence for a while. "You think we should bring some space rocks back for Tati?"

"If we bring them for her we'll have to bring them for Morgan and the boys."

He nodded. "Also," he said after a moment. "Since we've got quite the walk. . . maybe it's time to talk about the elephant in the room."

The long suffering sigh she gave indicated she really didn't want to. But she said, "What we're going to do if we get Laura and the kids back?"

"Yeah. I will have two wives. I don't know what to do with that."

"Laura was pretty modern thinking. May we can come to a custody arrangement. She gets you weekdays an I get weekends and a month in the summer."

He stopped walking and looked at her, waiting for her to stop, too. "Natasha."

She tipped her head back, looking at the unnatural sky. "I don't know what to say, Clint. I don't know the answer. Other than to have a very awkward conversation among the three of us and see what comes of it."

"It's been five years." He couldn't believe this was not obvious.

"For her it could only be a few seconds."

"No, I know, I just. . ." He raked his fingers through his hair. "I grieved. I moved on. I married you."

"You were married to her for half your life."

They really were going to need to have a conversation. One where he explained to her, in detail, that she wasn't some sort of placeholder for the woman he lost. That he loved her and this was his life now. He didn't want to go back to the old one—he just wanted them all to be alive, and part of the new one.

But they were on a mission. It wasn't the time to have that kind of conversation. He shouldn't have brought it up. "Okay. Maybe we shouldn't discuss the elephant."

She nodded, seemingly content with that, and started climbing again.

They reached the top and stopped to breathe, leaning on rock outcroppings for support. "Okay," she said finally. "Now what?"

"I don't know. I'm not seeing any souls of people I've killed or anything."

"One would think they'd be hard to miss." 

"Welcome," a voice said from behind them. They both whirled, weapons drawn, to find a floating figure in a ragged cloak.

And that was when things just got weird. Clearly this guy was the stonekeeper. He knew them, and their parents' names—which Clint thought was an excellent way to throw off one's opponents. Nat was better at that sort of mind game.

But instead of having to get the answer out of him, he told them upfront what they needed to do to get it. And it sat in front of him, the choice that everyone had insisted he wouldn't have to make. His first family or his second. His children or his wife.

Or himself.

That was the only option.

He and Nat debated whether it was real or not, but somehow in their bones they both knew it was. 

"If we don't get that stone, billions of people stay dead," Nat said, standing next to him so he'd stop pacing. That elephant she was perfectly find talking about.

"I guess we both know who it has to be," he replied, trying to think how he was going to say goodbye.

"I guess so." She reached out and took his hand wrapping both of hers around it.

The fact that she hadn't argued with him—at all—told him they were each talking about themselves. "Natasha. Tati needs a mother."

He could see her swallow. "She'll have one. I trust Laura to raise her like her own."

" _No_." He couldn't breathe thinking about that. He wouldn't survive losing her. "It has to be me. It has to."

"What am I supposed to tell Lila? Or Cooper and Nate? That they're never going to see you again. Never say goodbye tell you them love you one more time? Everything you went through, they'll have to go through too." She squeezed his arm. "We're doing this so people get their families back. You deserve them back."

"I can't. . ." he shook his head. But she was _right_. He just just couldn't bear to admit it. "You deserve to live your life. There are a lot of people who love you. Certainly more than me."

"I love you," she said softly. "I don't want to learn how to live my life without you. Please, just this once, let me be selfish. Let me take the easy road."

Clint honestly couldn't speak, but he closed his eyes and touched his forehead to hers. She leaned into him, tangling both their hands together. "I love you," she repeated. "Tell Tati she was the best thing in my life. And tell the rest of them I'm okay." She squeezed his hands. "Really. I'm okay. It's okay."

"It's not," he replied desperately. It might be inevitable, but he was not going to agree to okay. He could fight her and make a run for it. He might make it if he caught her off guard.

As if sensing the thought, she nudged his head so he'd look in her eyes. "You have to let me go. You can't fight me. Because I'm going to fight back and them one of us will manage to knock the other down and make a run for it and I don't want that to be the last thing we to. Tell me goodbye and let me go."

They were both crying now. "I love you," he replied. "You saved me when I had nothing, and you were never my second choice."

"I know, I know." He wasn't sure that was true, but he appreciated her saying it.

He didn't want to let her go, but he couldn't stand there forever. "Okay," he said finally.

She nodded and stepped back, slowly untangling her hands. "I love you," she said one more time. "Don't look down." Then she lifted a fist and stung him with her stinger. He staggered, falling to his knees, then she went running for the edge of the cliff.

He woke up in a pool of water, glowing orange stone in his hand, and a shattered heart.

*

_Tony_

_New York, 2015_

Tony waltzed into Avengers Tower like he owned it, because he did. If the front desk noticed that his hair was grayer—Pepper convinced him turning 50 was the time to give up the ghost on that—they didn't say so. The private elevator opened because his biometrics hadn't changed. 

Inside, he heard a voice he hadn't heard five years. "Good evening, sir."

He swallowed, taking a moment to compose himself. "Hey, JARVIS. How's things?"

"I might ask you the same, sir. And any number of additional questions."

Shit. Of course. "You might not believe the answers, buddy."

"You walked out of the building 15 minutes ago and have returned, as best I can tell 5-10 years older. You might at least try."

He sighed. "I'm from the future. I need the scepter we just found to prevent a really bad future." He paused. "Well, improve a really bad future."

"Current you will likely be quite upset if you do so. He's been working on it for three days straight with very little sleep. He's just had an argument with Ms Potts over it." Tony remembered that. It was why he'd gone out 15 minutes ago, to get some air, settle his temper, and purchase something to apologize with. She'd been hopping between business trips and swung through New York to see him and go to the party the Avengers were throwing. He'd been too busy with the scepter, working late and passing out on the couch in the lab while she was alone upstairs.

That had not been a small fight. She'd skipped the party and left for London early she was so pissed.

"Honestly, me taking it away is the best possible thing for him."

"Since you are him, I'm going to have to trust you."

The elevator stopped at the laboratory level and he stepped out, sauntering town to the room he knew they'd kept the scepter. Sure enough, there it was, on a little metal holder, the mind stone glowing faintly in the center of it. In retrospect, now that he knew more about the stones and their powers, he wondered a little if the stone had influenced his actions back then.

He'd made an encasement for it, so he could remove it from the scepter and transport it discretely, without having to actually touch it. He'd just launched the nannites out of his watch when he heard the voice behind him. "So by 'take a walk' you meant 'go back down to your damn lab'."

It would have been nice if JARVIS had warned him Pepper was coming downstairs.

He sent an accusatory glance upwards and turned to face her. "I can explain." He was still working on _how_ but he was sure he could.

"Oh, I'm sure you can." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I just don't really want to hear it. Does Thor know you're fucking around with this thing?"

"No, but I can just about guarantee it's the last time you see me with it."

Pepper sighed, clearly not believing that. "You know, I told you once that you were going to kill yourself with this stuff, and I didn't want any part of it, and you got me to come along anyway because we were all each other had. That's not even a little bit true anymore, is it?"

He paused, studying her a moment. "You're still the most important thing."

"Couldn't prove it by me, Tony." He had very distinct memories of this fight, all those years ago. She'd been angry. But they had tempers and they both knew it. Arguing made for fantastic make-up sex. This one had, too, on the floor of a London hotel room three days from now, after they blew up Sokovia. She'd still been a little mad.

This, however, was not temper. It was sad and resigned. This—an insane coincidence that looked to her like a small but exceedingly asshole-ish lie—seemed to be the last straw in Pepper's considerable patience. He may have accidentally dug his past self into a very deep hole.

Pepper was still talking. "I'm going back upstairs to pack, and then I'm going to London early. I'll call you in a couple of days."

Maybe the truth would work. It usually did, with her, but this was a weird one. "If I don't deal with this staff right now, in two days you'll see me on TV beating up the Hulk in a South African city." She stared at him. "JARVIS. Tell her."

"Mr. Stark has apparently traveled through time."

She didn't move. "So I'm not imagining whatever is going on with your hair. How far?" 

"2023. I'm not sure how much I can tell you without fucking things up but there's a stone in that-" He pointed at the scepter. "When combined with a bunch of other stones it can give some one infinite power."

She came across the room, and reached up and unzipped his hoodie. It surprised him enough he jumped, but she clearly just wanted to see the reactor and nannite housing, because she tapped it with her fingernail. "God," she whispered. "You're never going to stop, are you?" He couldn't even get a reply out before she said, "No, I don't want to hear it. I'm sure it's perfectly fucking valid. It always is." She zipped his hoodie back up. "Get your stone and go save whatever you're saving. I'll deal with your doppelgänger when he gets back." 

He watched her turn and walk out without another word. She'd clearly believed him, and it had made it so much worse than if she hadn't.

When he got home he owed Pepper such a huge hug. He absolutely did not deserve all the chances she'd given him.

"Hey JARVIS," he said, turning back to the scepter to pry the stone out. "Look up a therapist named Yee. Specializes in famous people in high stress jobs. Next time my past self is moping because they fought, encourage him to go see her."

"Sir, Ms Potts, Col. Rhodes, Dr. Banner, and myself have been encouraging you to do something about your mental health for years. But I'll try." He paused. "The other you has returned and is in the lobby." 

He needed a few more minutes to get this done safely. "Whelp," he said. "Maybe he'll listen to himself.

"If you would like, I could explain it to him while he rides up in the elevator."

"A little prep would probably help."

When past-him came out of the elevator 5 minutes later, Tony wasn't surprised he had one of the suit gloves on, just in case. "JARVIS said he scanned your DNA."

"He did. I'm you."

He stared another moment, then lowered his hand. "Do I seriously figure out how to travel through time?"

"You have help, but yes." He freed the stone and tucked it into its new containment. "It's not exactly a party game though, stakes are pretty high."

"Are you going to bring that back? I kind of need it." He paused. "Though it hasn't worked so far. But Thor'll be pissed."

"I don't know if I'll be able to. And also, no, no you don't." He turned to face himself, weird though it was. "Here's the thing. You're right. The bad guys are coming back and when they get here it'll be worse than the last time. But you are going to spend the years between now and then absolutely ruining any chance you have of stopping them."

"How?" He sounded halfway between intrigued and defensive.

"By fracturing the team that can do the stopping. Everything you do to prevent what you fear causes bigger problems and pushes away your friends. Not to mention repeatedly torpedos the relationship you have with the best thing to ever happen to you."

Past-Tony tilted his head and looked at the ceiling. Upstairs to their penthouse. "Do I lose her?"

"You come really fucking close, way too many times. You want the secrets to keeping your world safe? Forget the scepter. Go upstairs, grovel, hell, go to London with her to prove you're serious. And get a goddamned shrink. I already gave JARVIS the name. You'll love her, I promise."

"The point of Ultron is to stop all this." He gestured at the room in general, the tower, himself. Tony remembered being so certain he could engineer his way out of this problem if he just tried hard enough. 

"It doesn't. It makes everything worse."

There was a long, hard stare, and then he nodded. "Getting Pepper to forgive me will save the world?"

"Focusing on the people who love and sorting out your own goddamned head will save the world."

"You sure of that?"

He remembered being this guy. Wanting everything to make sense. To have 100% certainty in the world around him. It had take a decade and a lot of hard hits to get over that. "I'm as sure as I can be."

He sighed. "I'm going to need to play JARVIS's footage of this so Thor doesn't kill me."

"Tell him it's an infinity stone. He'll know what that means."

"Okay," he said after a moment. "Grovel?"

Tony nodded, crossing his arms and attempting to look stern. "Grovel."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has a happy ending. Nobody stays dead, we promise. Have faith.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sharon_

_New York, 2015_

Sharon had never actually met Dr. Strange. But she was pretty sure he was not a small bald woman.

"May I help you?" At least she was polite. 

"I'm looking for Stephen Strange," Sharon said. "But I feel like I have the wrong house."

"Oh, no. Wrong time. You're two years too early."

She sighed and glanced upward. Of course. "I don't suppose you have the Time Stone?"

"In all my long life, no one has ever just showed up on my doorstep and asked for it." She stepped back. "Come in."

Hoping whoever this person was, they were on the same side, Sharon did so, following her to an opulently decorated library where tea was already set up.

"Now then," the woman said, gesturing for her to sit. "What do you know about the Time Stone?"

Sharon sat and cave her the Cliff Notes version of Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet and the snap. "So now we're trying to gather up the stones and make our own glove and try to undo what he did."

"If I help you save your reality, I'll be endangering my own." She brought up some magical imagery, and explained how the Infinity Stones held the flow of time together, and if any were removed from their original timelines, disaster could follow. Unfortunate as they were removing _all_ of them.

Studying it a moment, Sharon reached out and plucked the green stone out of the air. "What if I promise to bring it back? That we'll put them all back?" She placed the stone back in the circle where it had originally been. "As close to right now as possible. Then there's no alternate reality, no imbalance."

"You have to survive to do that."

"I appreciate your confidence in us." The Ancient One gave her a look and Sharon help up her hands. "We'll survive. One of us will. And we'll make it right, I promise."

"I cannot risk my reality on a promise, Ms. Rogers. It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone at all costs. I cannot-"

She was going to skip over the part where she hadn't mentioned her last name and jump on the important part. "Then why did Strange give it away?"

"What?"

"Strange. He gave the stone to Thanos. Voluntarily. He apparently looked at 14 million versions of the future and decided that was the thing to do." That was what Tony had told her, anyway.

"Fourteen million. . ." she said softly, glancing off into the distance. Still not looking at Sharon, she gestured around the pendant she wore, opening it and drawing out the glowing green stone. "Strange was supposed to be the best of us." she told Sharon. "I have to trust he did it for a reason."

Sharon held her hand out and the Ancient One put the stone in her palm. It was warm, but not unpleasant. "Thank you," she said, closing both hands over it. 

She was out on the sidewalk when her comm came on. "You get it, Carter?"

"In my hands. What about you?"

"Yep. Wanna get a slice? And maybe a drink?"

Tony sounded a little shaken, so she said, "Sure, I could go for a proper New York slice."

They found a place to meet, half a pizza and a couple of beers. Her mind dragged up the memory of the time she'd met him as a kid—he'd been in his early 20's, eating cold pizza and sobering up in Aunt Peggy's kitchen. He'd informed her, standing there in her girl scout uniform, that she should never drink something called goldschlager.

"Did you run into any trouble?" she asked, sipping her lager.

"I ran into myself. And Pepper. But myself was the weird part. God, I used to be such a jackass."

"Yep, yep you were." He gave her a look and she spread her hands. "I said were."

"I gave myself a good lecture. Maybe he'll do something useful with the lack of Ultron. I am not bringing this stone back."

She didn't disagree. "Where are we going to put it? I guess I could give it to Time Stone lady."

"I don't know. When we get home I can ask Thor if he thought him from 2015 would promise not to give it to 2015 me. Let him take it to Asgard like he planned."

"From what Steve has said, 2015 Thor was pretty pissed at 2015 you."

"Yeah, yeah he was," Tony said. "That was after Ultron. Right now he thinks I'm just analyzing it."

"Whoever returns it will have to make sure to get the point across."

He picked up another slice of pizza. "So Time Lady thought we were going to kill ourselves doing this?"

"She seemed skeptical as to our survival," Sharon admitted.

"I don't know if you've ever seen the energy recordings of when Thanos used it. . . but I can see how that might go sideways. Maybe we should send the kids down to the city. In case we blow ourselves up."

"I think that's a really good idea. Steve and I will certainly feel better with them out of the blast zone."

"I think it will be fine. It didn't hurt anyone in the vicinity when Thanos snapped. Other than Thanos—got help whomever of us holds it—but I think we should send them just in case."

She nodded and finished off her beer. "Ready to see how everyone else did?"

"Let's get this show on the road."

*

_Valkyrie_

_Asgard, 2013_

With a little assistance from the Queen, it was pretty easy for Valkyrie to pose as a healer and show up at Jane Foster's door to extract the ether. As odd as it was to have a conversation with your man's previous woman. She seemed perfectly nice, and clearly about as smart as Tony Stark based on the questions she asked. And then Thor could spend more time with his mother, which was something he desperately needed.

When she returned, he was telling Frigga about their second pass at Thanos, where they'd killed him but it had amounted to nothing. That entire sequence was perhaps his least favorite thing in the universe to talk about, and she walked over to put her hand on his back.

Frigga gave her a little smile, holding Thor's hand in hers. "I'm afraid, Thor, that you are just like everyone else."

"I'm supposed to be better than that."

She smiled kindly. "You were never very good at what you were supposed to be. I think, if this plan of yours works, it's past time for you to find out who you really are."

He inclined his head in Valkyrie's direction. "She tells me all the time I should live the life I have."

"That's pretty good advice."

"She's very wise, sometimes." He squeezed his mother's hands, lifting them to kiss them. "It was so good to see you."

"It was good to see you happy," she replied. "I'm your mother, I worry. And it was good to meet your wife. I might tell your father about that so I stop hearing about it."

She wouldn't be able to. Valkyrie knew about that. Frigga would die in the Dark Elves attack later that afternoon.

She could see that knowledge crossing Thor's face as well. "Mother, I-"

"No," she said firmly. "You're here to repair your future, not mine."

He opened his mouth and she gave him a Look, making him shut it again. Then he said in a rush, "Keep an eye on your blind spot."

Frigga blinked, then laughed and nodded. "All right. Fair enough. Now, you should be on your way?"

"Probably." He hesitated, then looked at Valkyrie. "Since he already knows I'm here, I'd like to go say hello to Heimdal."

"Fine by me, but I'm not sure I want to carry this thing out to the bifrost."

He grinned at her. "We'll fly." Then he held out his hand like when he was calling Stormbreaker. They all stood there for a moment, but nothing happened.

"Sometimes it takes a minute," Frigga said sagely.

A moment later, Mjolnir flew through the window and into Thor's hand. He grinned, and tucked an arm around Valkyrie. "Ready?"

"I love flying," she replied.

"Brunnhilde," Frigga said, causing her to turn her head in response. "Take care of him."

She dipped a small curtsey. "With my life, your majesty."

"Be safe. Both of you." Thor game a little bow, then spun up his hammer and they were flying out the window.

"You're very proud of that," she told him when they landed on the bifrost bridge.

He held it up and looked at it. "I'm still worthy."

Oh, there was universe to untangle in the way he said that. They didn't have that kind of time, but they'd talk about it later if this whole infinity-stone shenanigan didn't kill them. Right now she didn't want him to get lost in the guilt he still carried. "Hey. Of course you are."

He nodded, though she could tell on his face he still wasn't sure. But he kissed her and turned to the tall warrior in the gate room. "Heimdal! Meet my wife."

The gatekeeper smiled. "This is going to be an interesting story."

Heimdal was far less interested in the mystic balance of the universe, and was happy for Thor to explain absolutely everything—from the Dark Elves all the way to Ragnarok. "I wanted to undo it, but. . ."

"No," Heimdal said. "It's prophesied. I can't imagine what might happen were you to tamper with that, but I know it wouldn't be good."

He slumped a little, but nodded. "I will fix what I can," he promised.

"Of that I have no doubt."

They grasped arms a moment, then Thor turned back to Valkyrie. "Ready to go?"

She found herself looking at the bifrost. "Ah, no, actually. We're making a detour."

"Uh. . . to where?"

"Sakaar." His eyebrows went up, and she put her hands on her hips. "If you get Mjolnir, I am going to get Dragonfang."

The mention of her old weapon made him grin. "As the lady wishes. Heimdal?"

"Do not get stuck there," he warned, and went up to turn the sword.

*

_Natasha_

_The Soul Realm_

She leapt, and she fell, and she opened her eyes in a hay field on the Barton's farm.

She supposed it made sense. If she had to pick a heaven, it would probably be a lazy summer day on the farm.

Slowly, she got to her feet, brushing off the hay clinging to her jumpsuit. Might have been nice to get a change of clothes in heaven.

With nothing else to do, she started walking towards the house. Maybe this was the part where she got to review her life, or meet her parents, or something. 

"Auntie Nat?"

She froze, seeing Lila in the distance, coming down the path from the barn. She was. . . older than the last time Nat has seen her, now firmly in her teens, with her hair pulled back in a braid. She dropped the pail she was carrying and started running towards her. Nat ran towards her, flinging her arms around her.

"Auntie Nat, you came back! Nobody has come back." Lila leaned back to look at her. "Is Dad with you?"

"No." She tried not to think of Clint's face when she jumped. "No, baby, he's not with me. What do you mean came back?"

"The people that vanished. Five years ago half of everyone vanished."

Nat blinked at her a moment. "Okay. Is your Mama home? We have a lot to talk about."

She followed Lila to the house, and Laura came out onto the porch when called. There was as similar exchange—surprise, hugging, asking after Clint. Then they went inside, and Laura made tea. "What happened to you?"

"From my perspective, nothing. The rest of you disappeared - turned to ash - and we were left." She gave her a brief explanation about Thanos. "We've all been. . . putting our lives back together."

"That is exactly what happened here," Laura said. "Without the ash part. Suddenly people were just. . . gone. Took a while to sort out what happened, though." 

That meant they were all here. Sam and Bucky, Nick and Maria. T'Challa. She'd never find them all, but maybe. . . "We're trying to fix it," she told Laura. "What's left of the team. We found a way to gather up all the stones and make a new glove. Bring everyone back."

"How did you get here? On what I suppose is 'our' side?"

She looked down at her tea cup. "To get one of the stones . . . a sacrifice had to be made."

"A sacrifice of their life?"

"Yes," she said softly.

Laura reached over and put her hand over Nat's. "Bet that ledger's all black now."

"I hope so." She covered Laura's hand with her own. "I have a favor to ask you, when you go back."

"Anything."

She really, really didn't want to tell her this. But she didn't know how much time they had and it was important. "Clint and I. . . formed a relationship. Not right away, he mourned you all a long time. And. . . we have a little girl. Tati. When you go back, please take care of her. Help him tell her all about me."

"Oh," Laura whispered. When Nat dared look up, she had tears in her eyes. While Nat was in the middle of wondering what that meant, Laura scooted her chair around enough she could hug her. "I will. I promise. And thank you for taking care of him."

Nat hugged her, wrapping her arms around her tight. "We were really happy."

"Good." For while they hugged, and they both cried. Eventually, Laura leaned back. "While you're here, come say hi to Nate, he's upstairs. Cooper's at college, but we can call him. And then I want you to tell me everything about the other world."

She nodded, wiping her eyes. "That sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon."

*

_Pepper_

_New York, 2023_

Having four children to look after at least kept Pepper busy. Snacks, coloring books, Harry needed a diaper change. She'd just gotten them settled in the living room of Thor and Valkyrie's house where they were camped out, when her phone rang. She almost dropped it trying to answer. "Tony?"

"Hey." She was grateful to hear his voice, but alarmed by how shaky it sounded. There was an entire paragraph in that word, full of shock, fear, and grief.

Pepper went into the kitchen so the kids couldn't hear. "What happened?"

"We got them. We got all the stones. But. . . Pep, Nat didn't make it."

She leaned against the counter, so she didn't sink to the floor. Her first instinct was to argue that it couldn't possibly be true, just because she didn't want it to be. "What?" was all she got out, unhelpful as it was.

"Clint's . . . well, you can imagine what Clint is like right now. But from what he said, to get the Soul Stone, you have to make a sacrifice. You have to lose the person you love."

Pepper closed her eyes, thinking about she and Nat trying to hold each other together in the miserable aftermath of the snap. She couldn't believe she was gone. Maybe sitting on the floor was a good idea. "Should I bring the kids back? Should I- should I tell Tati?"

"Not. . . Not yet. We all need a minute down here. And I think it's a good idea to send the kids down to the city when we try the stones. There'll be a big energy release and I just - we want to be cautious."

"None of you were here to see the abject chaos of the original snap. I feel safer here." She took a shaky breath. "And you should make time for Clint to see his daughter."

"Right. Right." She could hear him audibly blow out a breath. "I'll talk to him. Stay put, we'll be in touch."

"I love you," she said quietly.

"I love you too," he told her, voice strong. "Every minute."

After they hung up, Pepper had to sit in the kitchen for a few minutes and cry, before she could pull herself together and go back out to the kids.


	5. Chapter 5

_Steve_

They went across the lake to New Asgard, so everyone could see their children. Hugging his boys didn't make Steve feel any better. Clint tried to explain it to Tati, but she didn't really understand her mother was gone. The kids started playing again, running around in the grass, because that's what kids did. Sharon had headed them out of the house.

Steve was out on the porch, watching them and letting himself cry. Pepper was doing the same on the other side of the porch. This seemed to be the spot for crying. In the house behind them, Tony and Clint and Thor were shouting at each other about space magic. Steve should probably go do something about that before fists got swung. But he didn't really fucking care right now.

Sharon sat next to him and put her arms around him. Neither said a word, but it was nice to have her there. After a moment, Pepper joined them and they both wrapped an arm around her as well.

He remembered the day after the snap they'd gone to the farm to find everyone gone. How Nat had sobbed against his shoulder, and for a while Steve had been sure she'd never smile again. He didn't doubt for a second s  
he'd do this for those kids.

At some point Valkyrie came stomping up the porch and went inside, and a moment later the arguing finally stopped. When she came back out, she said, "Before we go on to the risky next step and use the stones, we—the Asgardians—would like to go down to the lake and say a prayer to send her off to Valhalla. I know this isn't your religion, but you are welcome to come."

"I think that sounds lovely," Sharon said. "Thank you."

Valkyrie nodded. "She was a warrior. And she died nobly. I know it's cold comfort but for us it's an honor. It matters."

It had been a long time since Steve prayed, and this particular prayer was entirely foreign, but all of them standing on the lakeshore taking a moment to grieve felt very much like the right thing to do.

"... Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death."

Someone floated something small that had been lit on fire out into the lake.

They stood watching it until it burned out and sank under the water. He wasn't sure anyone had a dry eye by then, but it was good. It was a release. Something that made them ready for the next step.

*

_Thor_

Team science got the glove finished, and all the stones in place—Tony had it put together with robots so no one had to touch the stones. Some of them were more dangerous than others outside their containers.

No one had discussed who would use it, but that seemed so obvious that Thor was actually surprised when Steve asked, "Have we sorted out who is doing this?"

"Hulk could do it," Banner offered.

Several people vetoed that almost before he finished the words. "No offense, buddy," Stark said. "But the last thing we need is the big green guy with infinite powers."

"It's clearly painful." Steve added. "He'll be even less likely to listen to us than usual."

"I assumed I'd do it," Thor said. "I have the highest odds of surviving." How high those odds were, he didn't know. When he and Valkyrie talked about it the night before, they'd studiously avoided trying to figure that out.

"You have a lot more people who need you than I do," Banner said. "And Hulk is stronger."

"Debatable." He ignored Valkyrie's eye roll. "But Steve and Tony make good points. Whatever pain or injury the glove may cause, I'm more likely to have the presence of mind to successfully perform the snap."

"You do channel lightning," Steve said. Of course, the lightning was something he had a magical connection with. It had not ever been even mildly uncomfortable. The Infinity Stones were not likely to be gentle. Steve did still sound uncertain, perhaps just because everyone was so rattled from the loss of Nat. They were afraid of losing anyone else.

But if Thor had taken off Thanos's damn head in the first place, they wouldn't be standing here. It was his duty to do this, even if it did kill him.

"Are you sure, Thor?" Sharon asked gently.

He glanced over at Valkyrie, who nodded, then nodded himself. "Whatever happens. I'm certain."

The rest of them all nodded. Valkyrie came around in front of him. "You want to give me your fake eye?"

"I'm not taking my eye out and handing it to you."

"I'm just saying, it's got electronics in-"

"You worry too much." This would likely be undignified enough as it was. "Let's do this."

She reached for his hand. "I think I worry the right amount," she said quietly. 

He squeezed her hand and leaned over to kiss her. "I love you."

"I love you back," she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck. She took a couple of deep breaths, and said, "Okay. Go."

He stepped up to the table they'd set the glove on. "Remember," Tony said. "Bring back everyone that disappeared, but don't change the last five years."

Thor nodded, thinking of the children running around in the grass across the lake. "I understand." The rest of them braced themselves, armoring up in case anything went wrong. Blowing out a breath, Thor picked up the glove and slipped it onto his hand.

The nannites it was made of reformed themselves to fit his hand and arm. White hot pain lanced up his arm. It felt like his arm was burning off. Gritting his teeth, he breathed through it, wobbling a little on his feet. He thought he heard Valkyrie say something in concern, but waved her off.

Focusing his entire being on bringing back everyone that had been lost, all the souls that had been weighing on his for so long, he managed to press his thumb and middle finger together and snap.

There was a flash, white light he could feel as much as he could see. It spread through every inch of his body, and it reminded him of when Hela had nearly killed him, or when he'd taken the force of the star on Nidavellir. He'd been very sure of his imminent death. Both of those times he'd been terrified, and soaked in the realization of his own failure.

Not now. Not anymore.

He could see them all beyond the light. Billions, trillions of them, a vast crowd going as far as the eye could see in every direction. He strained to make out their faces.

"Did I not tell you the sun would shine on us again?"

Loki.

When he fought Hela, he'd seen his father. Now he saw his brother. "You can't see the future."

"I can't," Loki replied. "I just know you."

Thor smiled. It was good to see him. "Did I die, then?"

"Does this look like Valhalla to you?"

"You say, as if I know what Valhalla looks like." Still, he looked around and had to admit he hadn't expected Valhalla to be this crowded. "This is everyone we lost. The people Thanos took."

"Which apparently includes me. How you're going to explain this to your friends, I have no idea. Maybe I'll find someone else to look like."

"That is a problem I am quite eager to have, brother," he assured him. "I missed you."

"I believe you. You've gone mad in your grief, clearly, it's the only explanation I have for you doing something as insane as getting married."

Clearly his brother had been keeping tabs on him. "It suits me."

"If you die of this, I promise not to sleep with her."

Thor laughed out loud at that. "I'm not even a little concerned."

Suddenly he was yanked back, the light fading and the searing pain returning. The glove was gone, and he was on the ground looking up at the ceiling. Someone was spraying some kind of foam, he couldn't see who because he couldn't see out of his eye on that side.

Valkyrie kneeled over him, and there were tears in her eyes. He didn't think he'd ever seen that before. "Hey, hey, can you hear me?"

He coughed and managed to nod. "I'm here. I saw. . . I saw Loki. Did it work?"

She swiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Yeah, yeah it did." She leaned down to kiss him. "Told you you'd wreck that eye."

Finding he couldn't move his right arm, he lifted his left and hugged her. "If I didn't screw up now and then, you wouldn't get to tell me you told me so."

*

_Clint_

They were still trying to douse Thor when Clint's phone rang. He stared dumbly at it for a moment, seeing Laura's number, before he managed to answer. "Hi," he managed to get out, having no idea how he could possibly explain.

"Hi, baby," she said. He'd almost forgotten what she sounded like. "We have a lot to talk about."

"That. . .yeah," he replied, trying very hard to keep his voice steady and doing a terrible job. How was he ever going to explain all this? Was she expecting him to be her husband again? Did she know how much time had passed?

He wished he'd been the one to jump.

"I saw Nat," she said, almost knocking him off his feet. "Wherever we all were, she went there. After. I know about you two. And Tati. I can't wait to meet her."

The knot in his chest loosened, just a fraction. Maybe. . .

Before he could reply, someone yelled, "Incoming!" and then the room exploded.

When everything settled and his ears stopped ringing, he was somewhere under the building, that fucking glove laying next to him. "Come in," he said, tapping his comm. "Anyone read?" There was a sound at the end of the tunnel he was in and he pulled his light out, revealing some weird alien dog things heading for him.

Scooping up the glove he turned and ran.

*

_Tony_

"The kids?" was the first thing Steve asked when Tony found him in the rubble. He was crouched over Sharon holding a beam off of her.

"Pepper has them in one of the basements over there, under a hard light shield. I resisted saying 'I told you so'." He lifted the beam so they could both get out.

"That's big of you," Steve replied, helping Sharon up. "What happened?"

"You mess with time, it tends to mess back. You'll see."

They went back outside, to where Thor was standing watching Thanos, still sitting casually, alone, next to his weapon. 

"Find anybody else?" Thor asked.

"Rhodey's got Rocket and Lang down there somewhere," Tony said. "Nobody else is on comms. If Bruce hulked out during the explosion he's probably okay." He imagined, but didn't say, that Clint likely was not. He didn't know how durable Nebula was. And like Hulk, Valkyrie could probably survive having a building dropped on her. "I'm sure she's fine," he added.

Thor nodded, still watching Thanos.

"Where are the Stones?" Steve asked.

Tony gestured to the mess. "Somewhere under all this. All I know is he doesn't have them."

"So we keep it that way," Sharon said.

Thor chuckled a little. "This is a trap. We all know that, right?"

"Yeah." Tony rolled his neck and looked at the others. "Don't much care."

"Just as long as we're all in agreement." Thunder rumbled and clouds gathered above. He held his arms out—apparently the burned one was starting to heal—and both weapons flew out from wherever in the rubble they were. Lightning struck and he was in his armor. It was a neat trick Tony had always envied.

"Wait!" They all looked down to see Valkyrie climbing out of the hole to their left Stormbreaker had punched. She scrambled up to them. "Thanks for the escape hatch." Tony could see Thor open his mouth, probably to express joy that she was safe, but she didn't let him. "But could we put the testosterone down and consider caring about the trap for a second?"

"Thank you," Sharon said from somewhere behind them.

"We can't just let him sit there," Thor said.

"That's what you do with bait," she replied. "I don't know how far you can throw the lightning--or shoot your rockets." She gestured at Tony with her sword, which he noted was purple. "But we should use what little cover we have. You go out there, you're right under his guns." She sheathed her sword. "In any case, try not to die. What we need is help, and I'm going to go get it."

"From where?" Tony asked, rather incredulous.

She looked up at Thor. "Heimdal and your brother have a couple thousand Asgardians on the other side of the lake."

Thor broke out into a grin. "It was real, I did talk to him."

"You did. Heimdal also said Carol is about half an hour out. I don't know if you can play chicken with him for that long, at least."

"He does love his overwrought speeches," Tony said.

"Go ask him if his mother knows he's wearing her curtains," Thor replied.

Tony snorted. How far they had come. "Go get the cavalry," he told Valkyrie. "We'll keep his attention."

She reached over and put her hand on Sharon's shoulder. "Keep them from doing anything stupid."

"I'll do my best but I am only one woman."

*

_Sharon_

She was only one woman, and she was far more fragile than any of the rest of them. Getting anywhere near the reach of a man who was a threat to the three of them wasn't a good idea. And she was a spy, not a soldier. So she climbed as high up on the rubble pile as she could, to try and get a look at what Thanos had brought with him.

Across the lake, she could see an ice bridge being built—she assumed via magic—to convey the Asgardians to their side. Behind Thanos, ships were landing, and masses of troops were being beamed down from his ship.

"Thanos appears to have brought the entire evil universe," she told the comms.

"Apparently he's going to enjoy destroying our planet," Steve replied. They'd gone down to fight him mostly to keep him busy, and from what Sharon could see, they were neither winning nor losing.

"I've heard that before," Tony said. "They're not even original anymore."

Sharon could see Thor having an actual hand-to-hand fight with Thanos, probably because he thought he had something to prove. It was hard to see what was going on with the dust and smoke various exploding things coming from Tony's suit, though it looked like Thor was losing.

Then an enormous bolt of lighting shot down from the sky and hit _Steve_. 

It took everything she had not to start sprinting down there. "Steve? What- are you okay?"

"Hang on!" he shouted. The lightning arced from him to Thanos, meeting another lighting bolt that Thor must have called. For a second it was so bright she had to close her eyes.

"I knew it!" Thor yelled.

When the spots in her vision subsided, Sharon could see Steve was carrying Mjolnir.

_Holy shit._ Sharon whooped. "That's right! My man's _worthy_."

She could hear Steve laugh, and then Thanos popped back up from wherever the lighting had blown him. Was this guy just indestructible? "Hey, Valkyrie, do you have an update on Carol?" she asked into the comm.

There was no reply, and Sharon was about to ask again when she landed next to her on the back of a large white pegasus. Valkyrie had talked about them, but Sharon hadn't known they still existed. She certainly had no idea where it had come from. "Ten, fifteen tops," she replied, staring out at the massing enemy army. "That looks. . . really bad."

"It does," Sharon agreed. "And I have a couple handguns." She blew out a breath. "We could really use our own army right now."

She squinted. "My people will be able to hold them a little while, but they're not the Asgardian Army. Hela killed them."

On the field below, Thanos seemed to have flung all three of them off. Steve was the only one still standing, SHIELD cracked in half and facing an entire army on his own. For a moment, Sharon couldn't breathe.

"Stay here," Valkyrie said. "I'm going to go get mine moving faster."

She didn't take her eyes off of Steve, barely noticing Valkyrie take off on the pegasus. Everything in her wanted to go down there and stand next to him. But she knew he wouldn't want that, that she'd only distract him, so she stayed put.

Next to her, she heard an odd crackling, and the smell of ozone. Then her comm popped, as if someone's mic was giving feedback. "-you read?"

She knew that voice. How did she know that voice?

"Cap, it's Sam." She could see Steve startle. "On your left," Sam added.

Portals began opening along the ground. People began pouring out. She spotted the Wakandan warriors, lead by King T'Challa, Princess Shuri, and General Okoye. There was a portal that opened to a foreign planet, and a group poured out, including the Spider-kid Tony had taken under his wing. Down to her left, she saw Bucky, along with a walking tree that Rocket had mentioned a few times.

A small portal opened near her and a trim Asian man in black stepped out and held out a sniper rifle and assault weapon. "I'm told you might like these."

Sharon was well past questioning these things, so she took them with and nod and kneeled, bracing herself to snipe. She was no Clint Barton or Bucky Barnes. But sniper rifles were a part of SHEILD training. And Sharon had excelled at all her training.

*

_Valkyrie_

War never changed. She'd been on plenty of battlefields in her long life. Fights that were just and fights that were wrong. Fights the were easy all the way to the pointless last stand against Hela that she alone had survived.

She envied the ground troops, because they could only see the immediate life-or-death conflict with the one enemy they engaged. From the air she could see the entire battle. 

If this went on much longer, the death toll was going to be very high. And she was very, very glad she'd gone and gotten Dragonfang. She could call the weapon just like Thor could call his, which was handy when she got knocked out of the sky while helping relay the glove clear to the other end of the field, so the stones could be returned to the past.

It didn't take her mount down, though, and she watched her fly off. She'd go back behind Asgardian lines, if Valkyrie could just get over there. 

She decapitated two of those lizard dogs, and then paused to watch the sky, looking for the lightning to reassure herself Thor was still alive.

What she saw instead was a yellow glow turning into a ball of fire as it streaked through the atmosphere like a meteor.

"Thank the fucking universe," she said, shading her eyes as Carol blasted through Thanos's ship. Later, she was going to have a serious conversation with Heimdal about his definition of 'fifteen minutes'.

Carol tracked down the kid with the glove and Valkyrie changed directions, figuring she could help clear the way for her.

A huge alien stepped in front of her, ready to knock her down. She lifted her sword to do her best to fight back, when suddenly he froze solid. A half dozen knives then buried themselves in him and he shattered.

She turned to see Thor's brother standing a few yards away, looking a little blue as he wielded the casket of winters. He gave her a sprightly little wave.

"At the end of the universe, there will be only cockroaches, carbon, and you," she called.

He sketched a little bow. "You're welcome, sister."

Oh, and she was stuck with that. "Welcome back."

There was an explosion, of the magnitude that the shockwave knocked people off their feet. It was pretty far away and Valkyrie's ears still rang. 

"He blew up the van!" Scott was shouting into the comm, when she could hear again.

Well, fuck.

Everything was chaos. Near as she could tell, Carol had lost her hold on the glove and now Thanos and the boys were actively playing keep away with each other. She couldn't worry about that, all she could do was fight the aliens near her and stay alive.

Loki stayed with her and they watched each other's backs. At this rate, if they didn't die, she might end up liking him.

She swung her sword, and her opponent turned to dust. Surprised, and her balance thrown off, she stumbled. She swung around, and all over the battlefield, enemies were disintegrating before their eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

_Pepper_

The waiting was the worst. 

She could probably patch into the comms and listen to the battle, but she had four kids to look out for, and keep calm despite the explosions that were audible in the distance.

Harry decided he wanted his mother, and threw a tantrum around the time the booming stopped. He was finally drifting off in her arms when there was a final explosion, this one so loud it rattled the windows of the house above them, despite the distance.

That was either very good, or very bad.

The tantrum kicked up again.

It was eerily silent after that, other than Harry's crying. She picked him up, pacing the length of the basement. Eventually curiosity and anxiety got the better of her, and she crept up the stairs for a look. She opened the door in time to see the bit gold portal forming on the front lawn. A man she didn't recognize came out of it, followed by a very dirty and battle-worn looking Sharon.

Pepper went out to the porch. "Look, there's Mommy," she told Harry.

He shrieked and started trying to wiggle out of her arms. Sharon ran to meet them, scooping him up before he could get loose. "Hey, baby." She braced him on her hip and looked at Pepper. "This is Wong. He's on our side. You need to go with him, Tony's hurt."

Cold dread curled up her spine. You didn't go bring someone's wife to a battlefield for an injury you expected them to survive. Sharon would take care of the kids, so Pepper followed Wong into the portal.

They stepped out onto a battlefield. He gestured to the little group and she shoved her way through, expecting to see Tony being cradled by someone. Rhodey or Steve, maybe.

Instead, he was flat on his back, suit partially peeled off, while a strange woman with a scar on her face barked orders and a flummoxed looking Dr. Strange. There appeared to be a defibrillator and IV stand being set up next to her.

She looked over at Pepper when she approached. "You're his wife?"

"Yes," she replied. She knelt down next to him, but he was unconscious. "What-"

"I'm still doing a differential. Most likely a heart attack, but they're telling me he took a pretty bad beating, so could be shock or internal bleeding. He has heart problems, right? Any pacemaker?"

"No," Pepper replied, taking a breath. She'd rather have been called to give the doctor his medical history than say goodbye. "In 2008 he was hit with an IED and took a bunch of shrapnel to the chest. A doctor put an electromagnet in there to keep it away from his heart—that was the arc reactor. He had that until 2014, he had the magnet and all the shrapnel removed. That's the scar. His sternum is titanium." She took a breath. "No allergies. No medication. O+. He's 53. I think that's it."

"Perfect, thank you." She pressed her fingers to Tony's throat, eyes on her watch. "I'm Amanda Newbury, by the way. Doctor. Emergency medicine. Formerly of MSF." She looked up at Strange. "Heart beat is slowing, let's test the BP again, I'm thinking this is a heart attack."

He nodded and crouched at her side, slipping a BP cuff onto Tony's arm. Newbury looked at Pepper. "If his BP is higher than the last time we took it, I'm going to assume it's a cardiac episode, especially given his history with heart trauma. That's good. I can set up an IV and Strange and I can get him to an ER."

"One eleven over eight five," Strange announced.

"Heart attack it is. I'll get the IV going, you go find an ER that can take him right now, preferably in New York." He nodded and disappeared into the portal again. Newbury pulled the IV stand closer. "Neurosurgeon as my nurse. I've come up in the world."

"FRIDAY—the suit—can monitor his vitals." Pepper said. She didn't dare ask what his odds of survival were.

"It's toast," Rhodey said from behind her. "Thor had to pry it open."

They seemed to have won. At least, nobody was shooting anymore, which was plenty enough for Pepper right now. She reached up to stroke Tony's hair, and he stirred. "Hey," she whispered as he looked at her. "It's okay."

"We win?" he rasped, looking only at her face.

"Yeah," she replied. "Just hang on, okay?"

He nodded and sighed, closing his eyes.

A moment later, Strange reappeared, with a rolling gurney and a couple of nurses. Dr. Newbury jumped to her feet and together they all lifted Tony onto the gurney and headed for the portal. Newbury reached down and hauled Pepper along with them.

*

_Steve_

The portal to the hospital closed up behind them, and for a moment the lot of them just stood there.

"She's something else, isn't she?"

Steve turned. Bucky was standing next to him. He'd seen him fighting earlier, so he knew he was back. But now the fight was over, and they'd both survived. Steve hugged him before asking him what the hell he was talking about. 

"Hey punk," Bucky said affectionately, patting his back. "Good to see you again."

"You know her? The doctor?" Steve asked as he let go.

"Amanda, yeah. We met. . . wherever we were. The Soul Realm? Shuri tried to explain it but-" He shrugged. "We met when I was helping the Wakandans with some humanitarian work."

"So you're. . . together?"

"I. . . yeah. We are."

"That's. . . I'm really happy for you. So time passed? It's been five years for you, too?"

He nodded. "We thought you guys were the ones who'd disappeared. One minute you were there, the next, gone."

"And we thought you did." He shook his head. "Sharon and I got married. We have two little boys."

Bucky smiled widely. "Yeah? Can't wait to meet the little guys."

"Hey," Carol said, coming up next to them. "Stark going to be okay?"

Steve turned to answer, and nearly jumped, because she was _still_ wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. She'd managed to pry it off Thanos, put it on, and snapped him and his army away. Only it seemed to have had no detrimental affect on her at all. "Jesus. Does that hurt?"

She glanced down at it. "No. Not really sure what to do with it, though. Doesn't match the outfit."

Thor came up on her other side. "How are you just wearing that? It burned most of my arm."

"Do I need to remind you about me having been in the sun?"

"I absorbed the energy from a star," he said in reply. "Though, admittedly, I did almost die."

She tilted her head and lifted a shoulder, as if that explained it all. "I heard something about having to take the stones back where they came from?"

"The time machine needs to be rebuilt," Steve said. "Thanos blew it up." He looked over at the rubble that had been their buildings. Their home. He could still see the metal frame of the greenhouse, devoid of all its glass. "He blew up a lot of things."

"Oh, right, right," Carol said. She lifted the hand with the glove, and pressed her other thumb on the red reality stone. The ground began to rumble and shift beneath them as all the damage repaired itself.

"That's pretty impressive," Bucky commented. What had been a battlefield a second ago was now just a large group of people milling around on the grass like a damn carnival.

"I cured cancer, too," she said, so casually Steve couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Then she looked down at the glove. "This is the most dangerous thing I've ever handled. Sooner they go back, the better. Your big time machine inside is fixed, so we can do it pretty quickly."

"Should we put it somewhere safe in the meantime?" Thor asked.

"I'm safe," she replied. "There isn't anybody who could get it off me."

Thor regarded her a moment, and Steve could appreciate the caution. He knew what it felt like to wear it. Perhaps it was as tempting as Tolkein's ring, and someone just keeping it on was a risk. If they could be tempted by infinite power.

Carol sighed a little, and held out her other hand. Mjolnir flew right out of Steve's hand and into hers.

"Right," Thor said with a little nod. "Looks like everybody is worthy today."

"There's no way I am," Bucky said. "If a demo would make you feel better."

"Perhaps later, at the victory celebration."

The white winged horse landed in front of them then, and Thor stepped around Carol to go catch Valkyrie as she vaulted off of it. He dropped Stormbreaker right on the ground to do it, so Steve figured he was probably done with them. After watching them a moment, Steve said, "Hey, Carol, can you take me across the lake to see my wife?"

"Sure, you want me to fly you or-" She wiggled her gloved fingers.

"You know. . . I'm okay with the old-fashioned way."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself." She stepped behind him and hooked her arms under his then took off. The trip across the lake was very, very fast. 

She dropped him on the grass in front of one of the Asgardian houses, and the momentum was such he fell on his ass. But then the door banged open, and his sons came barreling out. So he stayed where he was for when they tackled him.

Jamie hit him first, Harry right after. He wrapped his arms around them holding him tight. Sharon followed at a slower pace, a dozing Tati on her shoulder. She got close enough he could reach out and curl a hand around her leg, so he was touching all of them.

It was okay. It would be okay.

*

_Thor_

"You need to cut your hair. Maybe shave your beard. Otherwise you look exactly like father."

"Shut up, Loki," Thor said Valkyrie said in unison. They were getting themselves ready to go through the time portal, as they'd volunteered to be the people that returned the stones. She was trying to situate his eye patch, and added, "Well, I like it."

"I'm not opposed to a hair cut," he said. "I didn't hate the old one. But I'd miss the braids."

"I'll braid it all back so you don't look like Odin," she replied. "But I kind of did hate the short hair."

"Well, I suppose you go get the deciding vote."

She tugged on his beard, pulling his face close to hers so she could whisper, "When we get back, if you'd like to ever have sex again, he's not living in our house." He was pretty sure that was an empty threat, her libido was cranked higher than his. But he appreciated the sentiment. 

"We'll find him a nice hovel," he promised her, patting her ass.

"Okay. Let's go romp through time."

As they packed up the stones and climbed on the platform, Bruce admonished them to snip all the branches—which was not even remotely possible. They'd kicked off plenty of alternate universes already, and there was no undoing that. But that wasn't something that needed mentioning. The stones needed to go back. Complete stone removal made the universes unstable, and untraceable. No one wanted to open holes in the fabric of reality.

_1970_

Thor put his hands on the electrified fence to absorb the current while Valkyrie cut a hole in it with Dragonfang. "You know," she commented as they hiked into the military base, "Their security is absolute shit. If we stayed here, we could steal anything we want. Live like Kings."

"You'd miss your pegasus," he pointed out.

"We'll sneak up to Asgard and get one." She ducked her head. "Suppose it wouldn't be the same," she added quietly. Neither of them really understood _where_ the pegasus had come from. Other than he'd worn the glove and he loved her and that came out of his subconscious. 

He kissed her temple. "That's your space magic pegasus."

"Come on. Let's toss the Space Stone down the laundry cute."

_2015_

The Ancient One met them at the door. "Did you win?"

"We did," Thor told her, holding out the Time Stone. "Thank you for your help."

"Hey, listen," Valkyrie said. "Can we give you the other one, too? Apparently Tony Stark is going to do something stupid with it that almost blows up the planet."

"Since I have a vested interest in the planet not blowing up, I'll be happy to watch over the Mind Stone."

"Fantastic. Three down."

_2013_

This was the most disconcerting trip. Tony had warned him how weird it was talking to a younger version of yourself, but weird didn't even begin to cover it.

"The Dark Elves are coming for it. Get it off Asgard, and don't tell Father."

His past self stared at him. "What happened to your eye?"

"You'll find out," he told him. He had gotten several lectures about what he should and should not say. Hela seemed like a big enough deal - and so intricately connected to Ragnarok - that it was best not to mention her.

"Who are you?" he asked Valkyrie.

"My assistant," Thor replied, before she could say anything.

Boy, did he hear about that later.

_2014_

"Trust me, it would not have gone over well if I'd told 2013 me that I was going to marry someone else."

They were climbing up the mountain to return the Soul Stone. After this, they'd go to Morag, and then they'd finally be done. "And 'assistant' was the first thing that came out of your mouth."

"I am many things, my love, quick on my feet with a lie is not one of them. It's what separates me from my brother."

"Point," she replied. 

They reached the top, finding it empty. Clint had said the Stonekeeper appeared when they got to the top. So they passed a moment, looking around, and sure enough a cloaked figure materialized and floated towards them. "Thor, son of Odin. Brunnhilde, daughter of-"

"Whatever," she said. "Take your stone back."

Thor held out the little orange stone and the red face specter looked at it in surprise. "I cannot."

"What do you mean, you cannot? You're the Stonekeeper. Take the stone and keep it."

"Once given, the soul stone cannot be returned. It belongs to he who bargained for it."

Thor was pretty sure Clint would cut off his own hand before keeping this damn stone as a keepsake or something. "He doesn't want it."

"Nonetheless, I cannot take it. It is not mine to have."

Sighing, he looked over at Valkyrie, who looked as exasperated as he felt. They were tired, they only had one more stop to make and then they could be done. He missed his friends, mourned Natasha, and really hated this guy. So rather than argue more, he turned and hurled the stone off the edge of the cliff.

There was a sudden, blinding white explosion. When the light faded, they were sitting in a pool of water. Him, Valkyrie, and Natasha.


	7. Chapter 7

_Clint_

His family had materialized at his farm, where the house was nothing but a burned shell. Steve volunteered to take one of the jets and go get them, and Clint took Tati back across the lake to their now-rebuilt home to wait. They were going to have to leave at some point, though. He couldn't live here and look at that greenhouse every day.

Sharon waited with him, holding on to Tati as they walked across the grass to meet the jet. "Mommy's home! Mommy's home!" she started yelling—because that's what the jet meant to her—and it was like a knife to the heart.

Then the gate dropped, and there were Cooper and Lila and Nate. He couldn't believe they were really there. And how big they were. Nate was twice as tall. Lila was a teenager. Cooper was a man.

Still, they all ran up and hugged him and he held them and hoped he never had to let go. Laura hung back, letting him have as much time as he needed. "Hi," she said softly when he finally approached her. "I'm so sorry."

Clint hugged her. "It's good to see you." He was, right then, grateful they had experienced the passage of time. This would be so much worse if to her, five minutes ago he'd been her husband. "I missed you," he said, because he did.

"I missed you too," she told him. "We all did." He leaned back to look at her and she smiled. "I'm glad you had Nat."

His throat closed, and it took him a moment to be sure he could speak. Then he turned and reached for Tati, who Sharon handed over. "Guys," he said to the kids. "This is Tatania. She's your sister."

Lila crouched down first, while the boys were still staring. "Hi," she said softly. "Your hair is really pretty."

Tati smiled shyly. "Hi."

The boys hunkered down to her level to talk to her as well and Clint let himself breathe. They'd figure this out. He and Laura could talk, maybe he'd take a break, there'd be a lot of chaos with people coming back. He could-

"Mama!" Tati shrieked, pushing between the boys and running across the grass to the other side of the jet.

He got up to chase her. She was two, she really thought the jet meant her mother was coming back, because it always had. They needed to get out of here, or the pain of constantly trying to explain why that would never happen was going to kill him.

He came around the side of the jet and saw Tati sprinting towards a group of people walking towards the building. He recognized Thor and Valkyrie and between them. . . was Nat.

She knelt when Tati got close, rocking back with the force of her hug. She sat down hard on her ass and help the little girl in her lap, rocking her.

For a moment, Clint was afraid he was losing his mind. That he'd cracked and was hallucinating this. He staggered toward her anyway, falling to his knees in front of her. "Tasha?"

Not letting go of Tati, she shifted forward and wrapped an arm around his neck. "Hey, baby. The Asgardians pulled a fast one."

"Oh my God," he said, the sound as much sob as words. He wrapped his arms around both of them, and pressed his face into her hair.

She kissed his shoulder, and the top of Tati's head. Then he felt her lift a hand and wave to Laura and the kids. "Hi gang."

"Auntie Nat!" Lila exclaimed. "You said you weren't going to get to come!" The kids were down on the ground, too, joining the hug, and somebody reached up to pull Laura down into it. Everyone was crying and talking over each other. It might have honestly been the best moment of Clint's life. He had no idea what kind of space magic had gone down, but he'd never been so glad to be wrong about something as he was right now.

"Okay, okay," Nat said eventually, laughing and crying at once. "Give me and Clint a little space please."

He helped her up as everyone got to their feet. "Laura told me you guys met up on the other side?"

"After I jumped I woke up on the farm and Laura and the kids were there. We had almost a whole day to catch up. Then there was a bright light and they were gone."

"And you were alone?"

She lifted a shoulder. "For a little while."

"How did you get back.? Red Floaty Guy said it was everlasting."

"We threw it back," Thor said from behind them. "And she appeared." 

"Story of my life," Nat said with a grin. "There's always a loophole."

Clint hugged Thor, because why the hell not. He'd hug everybody on the damn planet.

"Hey Mom," Nate asked, "Are we going to go find Jack now?"

Clint looked over at him. "Who?"

Laura cleared her throat. "Yeah, I was waiting a bit to bring that up. I, uh, needed someone to run the combine."

He stared at her a moment, then started to laugh and reached out to hug her. "Congratulations."

They were, all of them, going to be okay.

*

_Tony_

He had blurry flashes of memory. The fight. Thinking he was dying. Pepper hovering over him. Gold glowing light. Yelling voices, bright lights. Beeping machines.

Beeping machines he could still hear.

Struggling out of the fog, he managed to open his eyes and found himself laying in what looked very much like a hospital room. A brunette woman in a white coat stood to one side, reading a file. She glanced up when he shifted and he noted the vicious scar on her cheek before she said, "Welcome back. I'm your doctor. You have a pace maker now."

"Who are you?"

"Amanda Newbury, emergency medical doctor. You had a heart attack on the battlefield."

"You were there," he said. He remembered that scar.

"I was. I came through with the Wakandans. Figured you all would need a medic." She tucked the folder she'd been reading onto a hanger at the end of his bed. "I was right."

"You don't look Wakandan," he said, though that was a dumb thing to say. Still seemed slightly better than 'Why are you white?'.

"I was in Africa working with MSF when the Snap, I guess it's being called? Happened. Wakanda did a lot of humanitarian outreach in the years following and I ended up working with some of them."

"Years following? Time passed for you guys?"

"It did. Five years, just like you all."

"Wow." There was a tube under his nose, and it was itching, so he pulled it off.

She tipped her head to one side. "Seriously?"

The door opened and Pepper stepped in. She sucked in a little breath with a hitch to it when he looked at her, and there might have been tears in her eyes. "You're awake."

How long had he been out?

She came to the side of the bed, sat on it, and reached to put her arms around him. She hugged him like she had when he gotten off the Asgardian spaceship.

"Can _you_ convince him to keep him cannula in?" the doctor asked after a moment.

Pepper straightened, and he got the face she used to to cow the Board of Directors and sitting US Senators. He'd always found it very hot, and very terrifying. She said nothing. The stare was enough. He tried to put it back himself, then the doctor helpfully leaned over and did it for him.

"Thank you." That was directed at Pepper. "I'll leave you two to talk. Before I head back to the hotel I'd like to talk to you both about what recovery will look like."

"How bad a shape is my suit in?" he asked.

"Not great," Pepper said, in the tone that meant she was being diplomatic.

"It is an ex-suit," Newbury said on her way out the door. "It is no more. I has ceased to be." She disappeared down the hall before he could respond.

"Thor had to pry it off you with his hands," Pepper said. "But it needs to be the last one you ever put on."

"What if you need me to lift heavy things?" She gave him that look again and he sighed. "She was serious about the pacemaker, huh?"

"Yeah. You had a heart attack. You're lucky to be alive." She closed her eyes and bent her head. "Please take this seriously, Tony." It wasn't much more than a whisper, and it hit him harder than the glare.

He blew out a breath and reached for her hand. "Can I still be a super dad?"

She sniffled, and laced their fingers together. "I hope so. She's been dying to see you."

"I would love to see her," he said. "And a large serving of whatever I'm currently allowed to eat."

"I'll ask Dr. Newbury." She leaned over to kiss him.

"Thanks," he murmured. He tried to move his arm and hug her, but it was strapped to an IV and monitors, so she pushed it back down.

"It's okay," she replied. "Just rest. I'll be back with Morgan."

He nodded. "I'll be right here."

Pepper left, and was back a moment later with their daughter. Morgan scrambled right up on the bed, her favorite stuffed elephant under her arm. "Daddy!"

"Hey, pumpkin," he said, kissing the top of her head and cuddling her close.

"Mommy said you had a boo boo." She sat up a little, and tucked the elephant under his arm. He knew it to be her single most prized possession in the world. "Tuba will help you get better."

"Ah, I feel better already." He rubbed her back. "You being good for Mommy? Eating your carrots and all that?"

She made a face. "I don't like carrots."

He feigned shock and dismay. "But they're good for your eyes."

"I'll get glasses."

He laughed and kissed her temple, tucking her to lay on his chest. "Yes you will. You'll get whatever you want."

Pepper sat on the side of the bed, and rubbed Morgan's back. "You guys saved the world. Saved everybody."

He thought of Nat, and said, "Not entirely everybody."

There was joy in Pepper's smile. "No. Everybody." 

He stared at her a moment. "What?"

"Space magic. Apparently."

Truly, he had never gotten better news in his life. "Holy shit."

"Yeah." She rubbed his leg. "So get better, okay? We've got a life to live."

"I promise. That's doctor is pretty scary, I'm sure she'll keep me in line."

"She will," Pepper said. "I offered her a job."

"You did what now?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so brings us to the end of the story, and this series. We hope everybody enjoyed it!


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